President Trump welcomed soldiers he recently pardoned in war crimes cases on stage with him at a Florida fundraiser on Saturday night, The Miami Herald reports. In a private speech to Republican Party of Florida donors, he touted Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn as special guests as they were invited on stage. Their attendance alongside Trump at the Florida Republican Party’s annual Statesman’s Dinner comes after The Daily Beast reported that the president wants to have the pardoned soldiers campaign for him ahead of 2020, with one source saying Trump had spoken of making it a “big deal” to have the men on stage at his renomination convention in Charlotte. The president sparked controversy last month by overruling military leaders to issue pardons to the two men. Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence for murdering two civilians in Afghanistan, and Golsteyn was facing murder charges for killing an unarmed Afghan he thought was a bomb maker for the Taliban.
